September 20, 2009
Belton Lake – Belton, TX

When Belton Lake was voted in to be our tournament lake this month at the last meeting, there were some very colorful words expressed from many of the ATX anglers concerning their feelings about fishing there. Belton seems to have a reputation for producing some very difficult fishing at times, but nonetheless, that’s where we ended up at. Many anglers were optimistic though as the weather had started to cool a tad, and we had just received some good rain earlier in the week. Perhaps that would get the fish moving and eating a little more? Well, as usual, some anglers found good success, and many found no success. This time around, Ed Mathews would once again find himself sitting at the top of the list being the only angler fortunate enough to weigh-in a full five fish limit.

Talking about his day out on the water, Ed commented, “I had a weird day on Belton.” Ed managed to weigh-in 11.76 pounds for his first place finish, but in reality, had the potential to weigh-in much more than that. He began his day fishing topwater lures on a shallow main lake point near the launch ramp as well as fishing a few other spots closer to the ramp without really having any noteworthy success. After the lack of success fishing in cleaner water, Ed determined it was time to head further up the lake in search of dirtier water to flip and pitch in. Finding some shorelines with rock and wood, he began flipping his usual Jewel Jigs in shallow water. Around 10:00 AM, Ed had sifted through a few short fish before getting his first keeper of the day in the livewell. Sticking at it and fishing the same water for a while, he found a stretch of bank that was holding some good fish. Things turned sour though as Ed proceeded to break off the next three good keepers in a row, one of which Ed was convinced was around five pounds. After trying to duplicate the pattern on similar banks with no success, Ed returned to the productive stretch throwing a shallow running crankbait and scored two more keepers including a nice smallmouth bass. Running out of time and needing one more keeper, Ed fished a couple of spots and scored on his very last spot before weigh-in throwing a shaky head. Congrats on the win, Ed!

Taking second place honors was club president, David Bueche. David has actually seemed to be fairly consistent this year and this tournament was no different. Being able to adjust and pay attention to what the fish were telling him in this tournament paid off. Going into the tournament, he suspected that he would be targeting suspended shad and bass offshore all day, but as things progressed throughout the day the lack of wind and bright sunshine turned David off to that idea. Instead, he opted to pitch to deep timber in 15-25ft of water between the first and second big bends in the lake with a 1/2oz jig for the majority of the day. He caught one keeper at daybreak, but it was slow going until around noon. After having a slow morning, David dipped the tips of his jig trailer and chartreuse dye, and after that it was on like Donkey Kong! He caught several short fish many of which were small Smallmouth Bass, and put a few more keepers in his livewell to end with four bass weighing 8.05 pounds.

Falling about a pound behind David was Les Ems weighing in four bass at 7.12 pounds for a third place finish. Les was very brief in his comments about how he caught his fish, but we did get a little info from him. Bringing crankbaits through the treetops accounted for three of his keepers, and a topwater bait caught the last one. Les also complained about losing several other fish throughout the day.

The last thing to mention in this month’s tournament report is our big bass of the tournament. Big bass went to Les’s non-boater fishing as a guest with him and weighed in at 3.64 pounds. Unfortunately we were not able to get comments directly from Gary himself, but talking of the catch, Les said, “Gary was lucky on his big fish. He caught it on a crankbait by throwing it over my shoulder after the fish broke water on a big shad.” Now, the word “lucky” could be debatable as one could argue that it takes a good deal of skill to beat your fishing partner at a quick draw when firing at a big bass feeding on the surface. Whatever the case, congrats Gary on the big one!

Our next tournament is scheduled for October 25th on Lake LBJ at the Cottonwood launch ramp. Those interested in club events are encouraged to come to our club meetings the first Tuesday of every month at Threadgill’s on Riverside at 7 PM.